Whipper the Parakeet

There are now at least 32 primary colour mutations amongst parakeets, but Whipper the parakeet takes this a little bit further!

Whipper actually has quite a tail (pun intended) to tell, his mother threw him out of his cage because of the way he looked but Whipper was luckily rescued by Julie Hayward who is now his loving owner.Whipper then lead a life of a small time celebrity in home town Winton, which is in the Southland district of New Zealand, because of his odd look and rarity!

The most noticeable difference about Whipper is of course his feathers. Parakeets usually have straight feathers but Whipper has curly, long, soft feathers which actually make him quite cute, at least this young girl who handled whipper claims! "He's so cute how he's got really fluffy, curly bits..." she told some interviewers. Whipper also doesn't sound like a regular parakeet! His owner states "He doesn't make the same sound as budgie. In fact he doesn't make the same sound as anything really…". You can hear a little in the video below how Whipper sounds.

Whipper is classed as a “Feather duster” variety of Parakeet which is a a mutation which causes unrestricted feather growth. Whipper is actually the 4th ever of his kind which goes to show you just how rare he really is. He is much more active than these 3 other feather dusters which have been known to justsit and stare at the floor of their cage. Whipper, however, eats like a parakeet, sings like a parakeet and is is very social like a parakeet; however because of his long soft feathers he is unable to fly and it is also blind.